Barry Richards and Matt Holwell selected for Australia to play in New Zealand series

Playing for the NSW over-40 side, the players were selected after a standout tournament held in Palmerston in the Northern Territory from Saturday, May 20 to Saturday, May 27.

NSW were defending champions but were eliminated in the preliminary semi-final, losing to Western Australia by one run.

Maitland cricketers Anthony Kerr (Over-40), Simon Norvill (Over-35) and Mark Drage (Over-35) also represented NSW at the tournament.

Both Richards and Holwell have played for Australia before. Richards played in the 2019 Masters Indoor Cricket World Cup in South Africa while Holwell played in the same event in 2016, held in the UK.

Holwell, who plays for Northern Suburbs Cricket Club in summer, said he has played indoor cricket since his teenage years.

"It's a unique community and it's great to go away to nationals every year and catch up with the same old faces," he said.

"But I've always liked the version of the sport because it means you've got to be a good all-round cricketer.

"You've got to be able to bat, bowl and field and you kind of get found out if you've got a chink in your armour, especially at that level.

"I'm probably the sort of cricketer that started off as a good fielder, so indoor is really built for fielding, I always had good hands."

Brendon Sinclair from Maitland Indoor Cricket said Richards and Holwell should be recognised for their achievement.

"It's a huge thing, it's not something that is just easy to do, these guys have been at the top of their game for a long time," he said.

Sinclair plays with Richards and Holwell for the Minotaurs, Maitland's representative indoor cricket team playing in the Sydney competition.

Maitland has joined the Big Blast Indoor competition this year. After five rounds they have won one match and lost four.

Sinclair said the competition is a great challenge after Maitland had participated in the country competition in previous seasons.

"We decided this year, having a lot of good players, having six represent us at the state carnival last week," he said. "We decided to go into the Sydney comp and really test ourselves."

The Minotaurs defeated St Marys 85-72 on Saturday, May 20 for their first win. They were beaten 115-48 by Macarthur on Saturday, May 27.

"We played Macarthur Raptors on Saturday night and they are really strong, they've got a host of their own representative players, they've got junior Australian players, senior Australian or New South Wales players," Sinclair said.

Maitland has 60 players participating in the tournament across first grade, reserve grade, third grade and a masters team. The Minotaurs host the Hills Tigers on Saturday, June 3 at Maitland Indoor Sports Centre.